Cyclone Alcohol Stove

The Cyclone Stove is a unique alcohol stove design that's popular
with Japanese Stovers.

Advantages -

Doesn't need a potstand.

Design uses vortex breakdown to mix fuel and air together.

Easy to light.

Can light without primer pan.

Drawbacks -

Very difficult to construct one that works.

Aluminum versions are very delicate - not forgiving to high heat

Steel Cyclone

There are some
Japanese stove builders
(Ikaros
Blog) out there that have used the art of origami and balance in their stove
designs. They trim and fold aluminum cans so that they are able to support
the weight of a full pot, and so that incoming fresh air is spun into a
whirlwind as it mixes with vaporized alcohol. In order to use the thin
walled aluminum cans as pot supports, the upper supports must be long enough for
proper ventilation, yet short enough as to not disintegrate from the heat of the
stove. Water and/or stones may be added to the alcohol to slow down the
burning process. Balance is important, as adding too much water will
extinguish the flame, and not adding enough will cause the aluminum pot supports
to burn up. It is indeed a "Zen Stove."

A functional and far more durable stove able to survive the heat
from pure alcohol can be made out of a steel cans, as shown above. The
irony being that iron will survive the high heat from burning fuel, but will
slowly degrade with exposure to water (read - it will rust).

Go around the can several times, and add just a
little more bend with each pass until your can looks like the one above.

Use a Popsicle stick to carefully roll the column
edges inward. Avoid folding the column in half as you apply pressure on
the stove wall.

You may need to use a ballpoint pen or nail to
keep a round opening in the very top of each column.

This is what your columns should look like when
you are done.

Mark a horizontal circumferential line 30mm from
the bottom of the your stove.

Decide which direction you want your cyclone to
flow within your stove and drill or punch a hole to the left or to the right
(not both) of each column.

The red stove has a clockwise (southern
hemisphere) cyclone and the bare metal stove has a counterclockwise cyclone
(northern hemisphere).

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